Mar. 7, 2001 -
What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Boulder? Alternative lifestyles? Restricted growth policies? Add software to the list.

The Boulder-Longmont area topped San Jose, Calif. - the heart of Silicon Valley - and 23 other metro areas for the proportion of its population employed in programming and other software-related jobs, according to a study released Tuesday. Denver also scored high, No. 11 in the study by the Washington, D.C.-based Software & Information Industry Association.

The ranking is based on a per capita basis, the number of workers doing the jobs divided by the population. The latest rankings are for 1999. Boulder and Denver held similar positions in the survey in 1998. Colorado's rankings show that the state is a high-technology player, said Cathy Ewing, executive director of the Colorado Software and Internet Association. Technology companies have been moving here from California and elsewhere, she said. Silicon Valley's skyrocketing cost of living could be boosting the number of high-tech jobs here by sending some firms to Colorado, Anne Griffith, SIIA's research director said.

"It is low-cost compared to San Jose, and there is a good pool of workers there (Colorado)," she said. "You can't even get a room in the Valley at this point. Trying to get office space for employees is becoming so difficult."

The job categories included in the study were computer programmers, software engineers, systems analysts, database administrators, network administrators and analysts and support specialists.

The employees don't necessarily have to work for software development firms like Denver-based Quark. But they have to write software code as part of their jobs.

At 13,740 employees, the Boulder-Longmont area has about 5 percent of its population - more than five times the national average - engaged in software-related jobs, said Griffith. The U.S. Census Bureau pegged Boulder-Longmont's population at 273,112 in 1999. In San Jose, about 4.5 percent of the estimated 1.6 million people in the same time period held similar jobs - 72,730 employees.

About 3 percent of San Francisco's 1.6 million people - 49,370 - worked in the industry, making the city third in the survey.

Denver had 36,780 software-related workers, nosing out Seattle, which was No. 12.

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